Kisses for a Cause
by CatsBalletHarveySpecter
Summary: (Pre-canon) Mike asks Donna to help raise funds for the clinic; she sets up a kissing booth at the office Christmas party, convincing everyone to take part. Repost from SS.


Repost from SS. Prompt: (Pre-canon) Mike asks Donna to help raise funds for the clinic; she sets up a kissing booth at office Christmas party, convincing everyone to take part.

AN: I decided to approach this one a little differently and would love to hear your thoughts!

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**Kisses for a Cause **

When he first met them, he thought they were married. Not in an innocent "ha, you two could be married," type of way, but rather in a "you two go home together and enjoy a glass of wine over dinner together," type of way. He doesn't know why he thinks it, but he does.

He believes they're together right up until Harvey brings up some girl he brought home after his poker game and it suddenly dawns on him that they don't wear rings and he's embarrassed to have ever thought they were more than co-workers.

But they acted like more than co-workers. He watched as Harvey relaxed into her touch when she instinctually reached for his tie. He watched them communicate without words and he watched them protect each other fiercely. And he knew, they had to be more than co-workers, they simply had to be.

For years he watched them pretend that the spark between them was non-existent, and for years he watched the pretending wear away at them. They clearly cared for one another, and he never understood why either of them found it so difficult to act on emotion. Sure, his boss was hard-headed and stubborn, but when it came to Donna, Harvey was always all in.

He watched as Harvey worked tirelessly to save Donna from going to prison, and he pretended to be shocked when Harvey accidentally admitted that Donna meant more to him than anyone else. The words Harvey used to lash out at him should have stung, should have rattled him, but more than anyone he understood why Harvey was so protective of Donna, he was in love with her.

And being afraid to love someone because you're terrified of losing them was not something that he would wish on anyone.

After his initial discovery that the pair was not together, he was quick to discover the reason he thought they were. His boss and his secretary had it bad for each other, and anyone with eyes could see it. In fact, they did see it. He could hardly keep track of how many times someone tried to leverage Harvey's relationship with Donna to get him to do something they wanted, and each time Harvey would break and give it to them. Donna was no different. He watched as she failed to maintain a non-working relationship with anyone who wasn't Harvey, consistently choosing what she didn't have with him over what she could have with someone else.

They fought like cats and dogs, but their fights were hot, heavy and quickly resolved and once again he was back to thinking that two people couldn't possibly have so much pent up sexual tension if they didn't have a history. His suspicions were confirmed when Rachel informed him that Donna and Harvey had in fact slept together years before, and suddenly everything made sense.

The way Harvey let his guard down around her.

The way Donna would defend Harvey's actions, no matter how extreme.

Why Harvey would sometimes nervously pace in his office before heading to Donna's office for drinks.

The way Donna would laugh and touch Harvey's arm when they spoke.

Every piece of the puzzle finally fit, and he understood why they were the way that they were, why his initial impression of them was that they were lovers.

He watched the entire thing unfold. He watched as the news of Donna's relationship with Stephen unravelled Harvey. He helped pick up the pieces of Donna's broken heart after she kissed Harvey in her office and he lost his mind and all the while he hoped that his friends would one day see what he saw, what they all saw.

He witnessed from the windows on the 49th floor as Harvey waited outside of his car with flowers for Donna and with bated breath, he hoped that maybe she would realize that wasn't something _friends_ did. When he strolled past her office the next day, he noticed the flowers on her desk, and he couldn't help himself from asking where they'd come from. She told him they were from someone special and for a moment, he almost believed they'd figured things out.

They hadn't.

In fact, looking back on that event, they were far from figuring it all out.

He kept his mouth shut, for the most part, offering advice when it was asked for or becoming gently encouraging when he needed to be, but for years he suffered in silence watching two of the people he cared about keep each other at arms length.

It always seemed to worsen during the holidays. The pair were polar opposites when it came to celebrating. Donna always remaining in high spirits while Harvey fell closer to the grinchy end of the spectrum. With all the celebration and hope for a promising new year, he noticed that the tension always seemed to amplify between his friends.

At first, he thought maybe something had happened between them at Christmas time, but he soon chalked it up to the loneliness each of them felt but wished they didn't feel throughout the season. It was the same thing year after year, Donna would throw a firm Christmas fundraiser and Harvey would reluctantly show up for an hour before slinking off to his office and claiming he was too busy to celebrate. It usually ended with Donna thinking no one was watching before taking a bottle of champagne and two glasses to Harvey's office where he once spotted them listening to Gordon's records while drinking from the bottle and sitting on the office floor.

He never dared interrupt, often cautiously slinking past Harvey's office to his own not wanting to intrude on what felt like an intimate moment between long time lovers. To an outsider, that's exactly what the scene would look like, but he knew better. He knew that this was their way of being close without being together, and with each passing year he noticed they spent less time at the fundraiser and more time on the floor of Harvey's office; laughing, drinking, pretending.

His first year at the firm, he never noticed Harvey's holiday hostility, but as time wore on it became clear that Donna was the only reason he even attended the company fundraiser at all.

The enigma that was Harvey and Donna perplexed him, and for years he wondered if maybe he was reading into things, if there truly was nothing there.

But one stolen glance or lingering touch was enough to convince him he wasn't reading into things and there was no lack of either when it came to his boss and the redhead.

He was over the moon he overheard Donna tell Harvey she wanted more, immediately turning on his heel and leaving the two of them to their conversation, not wanting to be the one to interrupt a conversation that had been a decade in the making. His enthusiasm was curbed when he found out Donna had been promoted to COO, not because he wasn't happy for her, but because he knew that meant they hadn't been honest with each other about the way they felt.

He watched Harvey fall apart, piece by piece when she left him to go work for Louis and though Harvey doesn't tell him why, he can tell it's a result of him being unable to let down his guard and give her his heart. His own heart aches for both in the weeks that follow, the storm that brewed between them growing ever stronger.

He wasn't sure how they worked past whatever happened to make her leave, but when he got out of prison everything seemed to be back to the way it was before, as it always was with the pair, one step forward and two steps back.

Years down the road he caves in and tries to talk some sense into Donna, but it backfires, and he spends weeks picking up the broken pieces of both her and Harvey's heart and he promises himself he'll never interfere again.

He hated that he always seemed to be mending broken pieces of two hearts that could easily made whole if sewn together.

He's waiting for Rachel at the elevator when the sight of Harvey once again pacing the length of his desk catches his eye. They'd been running in these never-ending circles for far too long now and his heart ached for his friend. He knew why his friend was pacing, Donna had signed up for the firm fundraiser and had offered to set up a charity kissing booth the following day, and Harvey was once again walking the fine line they so delicately treaded. He saw Harvey's initial reaction when she pitched the idea, and he knew exactly what his mentor was thinking, this was his chance. After everything they'd been through over the years, he finally had a chance to make a gesture and as expected, he seemed to be unnerved by the decision he had to make.

He had worked for Harvey long enough to know how his mind worked. He could show up tomorrow and participate, claim he was supporting the cause and hide beside a façade, or he could admit to how he felt, which is something he'd only ever seen Harvey do once.

Peering next door, he watches as Donna nervously chews on the end of her pen while she paces by her office window and he knows she's equally as nervous. She'd brainstormed charity ideas with Rachel just last week and he was surprised when she announced she'd decided on a kissing both, especially after the conversation he overheard between her and Rachel in his kitchen about what would happen if Harvey decided to participate.

She'd told Rachel it would be fine, that she hadn't even given it much thought, but he knew from the caution in her tone that she was lying, she'd given it a lot of thought and she wanted him to participate. So, he and Rachel encouraged her to do it, hoping it would shove their friends in the right direction and judging by the side-by-side pacing that was going on in the office of the COO and the managing partner, he thinks it might just work.

He watches as Harvey takes three confident strides in the direction of the door and grabs the handle of his office door, bottle of scotch in hand. He pauses before opening it and shakes his head, resigning back to his desk with a heavy sigh.

At the same time, Donna manages to make it three steps out her office door in the direction of Harvey's office before she turns around and returns to her own office, sinking into her desk chair with a defeated sigh.

He hears Rachel come up beside him and forces himself to look away from the heartbreaking sight before him. He'd been a witness to too many near moments, an assortment of almosts and he couldn't take it any longer. They deserved to be happy, and happy with each other.

.

The next day, he finds Harvey near the refreshments, stealing glances of where Donna and Katrina were set up with their kissing booth, "Kisses for a Cause." He watches as Harvey cringes with each person that steals a kiss from Donna, and he makes his way over to him.

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to participate," he teases, reaching over Harvey to grab a Christmas cookie.

"It's not exactly my type of event," he mutters, hiding his face with his champagne flute.

"And here I thought events that involved kissing redheads had your name written all over it," he teases again, watching as Harvey's face hardens.

"Mike," he warns, his eyes catching sight of Donna placing a small peak on Louis' cheek and then on the cheek of some associate from the 47th floor.

"Tell her how you feel," Mike states bluntly, not holding anything back. He'd watched his friends suffer for far to long to not try and intervene.

"How many times do I have to tell you, it's not like that."

"Harvey, I've worked here long enough to know that you're lying when you say that. You two are so terribly in love with each other that it physical hurts me to watch you pretend not to care! Tell me that watching her kiss other people doesn't bother you!?"

Harvey stays quiet and Mike knows he's struck a nerve. Good, maybe Harvey will finally listen to reason.

"That's what thought! Now, man up and get over there," Mike demands before realizing what he'd just said to his boss and shrinking back, "I mean, if you want to."

"She's not interested in me _that_ way," he reasons, and Mike isn't sure if he's trying to convince him or himself.

"How do you know that?"

"She told me. After she kissed me that night in her office, she told me she didn't feel anything."

"Did you ever consider that it was possible she lied?"

"Well…no," he admits.

Mike flashes him a pointed look and Harvey sighs, peering over at Donna once again in her red sweater and Santa Clause hat.

"Do us all a favour, get over there and make something happen," he encourages, nudging Harvey in the direction of the booth.

"Use some of the Christmas magic that Donna's always going on about!"

He watches as his boss nervously taps his foot, waiting in line on the far side of the room. The line crawls forward and Harvey panics but he remains in his spot, shifting forward behind one of the accountants from the 49th floor, his pulse visibly picking up.

He watches as Harvey moves to the front of the line, and both Donna and Katrina spot him at the same time. It's Katrina who has an opening first, and he sees Harvey's face fall before he catches what she says as she rounds the desk.

"Sorry Harvey, do you mind waiting I wanted to take a quick break?"

His boss mumbles something along the lines of "sure" and he watches as his shoulders relax. Thankfully, he wasn't the only one rooting for Harvey and Donna, and Katrina was quick enough on her feet to give Harvey a chance.

Donna's eyes light up when she spots him step forward in line and Mike's heart swells. C'mon Harvey, don't screw this one up, he thinks to himself. He knows from overhearing Donna's drunken girls' night's with Rachel that Donna had been waiting for Harvey to make a move because she was, in her own words, "In love with a fool."

Between pieces of conversations he'd overheard and Rachel filling him in, he knew that Donna was waiting for Harvey to make a move, since she was the one who made a move last time and it ended so poorly.

Ever since he found out she was still in love with Harvey, he'd been trying to gently encourage his boss to open up about his own feelings, hoping to convince him to tell Donna how he felt. Watching Harvey fiddle with his cuff links in line, he thinks that maybe all those late-night drinks in his office when he would slip in lines about how Harvey should take a chance were worth it.

.

"You came?" she asks, surprised.

"Well, it was for a good cause…" he mumbles, and Mike watches as he nervously shuffles his feet.

"Right," she replies "Well donations go in the jar, $2 gets you a nice little kiss on the cheek, $5 will get you a real kiss and you can donate more if you're feeling _extra_ generous," she smirks, leaning forward on the table next to the donation jar.

"What will an "I love you" get me?" he asks bluntly, and she slips on where her elbows are propping her up, stunned.

"What?" she whispers, stepping around the booth and pulling him away from the prying ears in line.

"You heard me, I said what will and "I love you" get me?"

She takes a moment to process and think about her response before she smiles up at him and replies, "That depends, love me—"

Before she can say "how" his lips are pressed against hers and he's pulling her in by the waist, her hands settling in his hair after the initial shock of the kiss wears off.

"Oh," she whispers when he breaks the kiss.

"That's how."

.

He watches as Donna pulls Harvey to the side, whispering something as she does so.

He watches as her expression softens when their hands grow closer but don't dare to touch.

He watches as his friends fall in love with a kiss, and he knows they can never go back, not this time. They are far too in love with one another to ever walk away again. One day he'll tell their kids the story of how back when he met their parents, he thought they were married because he'd never seen two people quite so _right_ for each other. He would tell them about how he watched it all unfold, how he watched two people figure out they were in love.

He grins to himself as he watches Harvey lead Donna away from the fundraiser, presumably back to his office seeing as he's holding to glasses and a bottle of champagne in his free hand. He flashes a brief smile in Mike's direction before following Donna onto the elevator, a slight spring in his step.

Kisses for a cause indeed, Mike smirks to himself. At least this year the night won't end with a drunken Harvey riding alone in the back of Ray's car while an equally as tipsy Donna crashes on his couch and has a girl's night with his wife.

One day, he thinks to himself, one day he should write this all down. The stolen glances and excessive flirting he'd witnessed. The heartache and the tears, each almost and every maybe, because he's certain when he tells this story at their wedding one day, it will begin with "I thought they were married" and end with "I guess in a weird way, they've always been together and all it took as a kiss to help them realize how in love they were."


End file.
